BIGGA National Championship 2024

1. A long history

We’re the oldest golfing society in the world. We're just heading towards our 300th year in 2035.

The course has changed a lot and used to start where the 14th tee is. The clubhouse was a big castle but they built the current clubhouse because the railway used to come up to here and this was the station.

2. Ringing a bell

The starter’s box was the station master’s officer. When the last train was ready to leave, the station master would come out and ring the bell and they all got on the last train into the city.

Every competition we have, the starters ring the bell on the first tee and it’s the original bell from 160 years ago. When each player goes out for the BIGGA National, we’re going to ring the bell for them.

3. Signature hole

Hole number 11 is a downhill dogleg played over what we call a cundy, an underground drain. There’s a Swilcan bridge that a member paid to install over the top of it and it’s a replica of the one in St Andrews. The hole is a long iron or 3-wood to the bottom of the hill and then it's a short iron to the green.

4. What’s your favourite part of the golf course?

I love the whole thing about it. The history when you walk in and people see when they come and play. They’ll bring friends to play the course and they think ‘the Burgess, that’s one of the top clubs in Edinburgh’ so they have a certain expectation. But when you walk in, the ambiance in the clubhouse is fantastic and it’s really welcoming.

5. Setting a target

Cameron Adam is a young members who is at university in the States and he won the Scottish amateur championship last year, breaking the course record at Dornoch and Tain in the qualifying rounds. Cameron plays to +6.4 and he’s at the same university as Luke Donald. His best round is 64, so that’s the target for BIGGA’s golfers to beat.

1. Signature hole

There's a few you can tick off. It's not like there's a definite one, but I'd recommend the 10th because when you play it, it looks onto the Firth of Forth and the Fife coastline so the views are excellent.

2. Hardest hole

Nine is probably the most difficult. The approach is all uphill and your drive has to be right of fairway if you're to have a shot up the green. The better players may be able to reach in two, but for most it's a three-shot hole.

Then when you get up there, the green can be quite a severe slope from back to front. We're going to put the pins in difficult places - but friendly ones too, if there's such a thing!

3. Favourite spot on the course

I like the 11th tee, looking down the hole. But even just in front of the clubhouse, you see quite a bit of the course. We're elevated and there are views down one, nine and right across the course and out to the back nine. I like 14 as well, it's quite a nice hole.

4. But it's not a links...

The original site was up at Bruntsfield in the centre of Edinburgh. Way back it was just a big grassy area where people would hang up their washing. They'd play all sorts of games and the golfers would wear red jackets to be identified as golfers. Our captains and the captains at The Royal Burgess still wear red jackets as back then we were the same club. When we moved site we split and The Royal Burgess became the oldest golf club in the world and we became the fourth oldest. We've been here since 1898, so we celebrated our 125th anniversary on this site last year, but the club dates back to 1761.

5. An outstanding CV

I started at St Andrews and worked on the New Course for 13 years under Eddie Adams. I moved from St Andrews to Archerfield as first assistant. I was looking to progress my career but was finding it difficult because I didn't have a qualification so I went back to college to do the HNC full time. I finished that and ended up at GWest with Lee Strutt, doing construction grow-in for almost seven years. I then moved to The Golf House Club, Elie and was there for six and a half years before securing a position here in February 2023.

I've worked at both links and parkland throughout my career but I don't see it as a big difference. We all manage turf and we're trying to do it to the best of our ability. The thing for me is just trying to produce the best course we possibly can for membership and visitors. It'll never be the finished article and we should always be looking at how we can improve and take the product forward.